Late Entries to a Survey of Bestiaries

January 7, 2023
The Botanical Bestiary
authors: Matt Cavanaugh
interior artists: Sita Duncan
cover artist: Sita Duncan
publisher: Inky Cap Press
publication date: December, 2022
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 76
ISBN-10: 0-01-157455-0
ISBN-13: 2-370011-574554
description: This bestiary contains descriptions of 65 leshies, each based on a different type of plant. It is compatible with the 5^th edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Role Playing Game.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the aloe leshy.

Originating from the Arabian Peninsula, the 500 species of aloe can now be found growing almost anywhere warm. Aloe is a succulent, with gel filled leaves capable of storing large amounts of water. These leaves have been used for millennia as treatment for skin damage, especially sunburns and minor irritation, and aloe is commonly cultivated for its gel and latex.

Typically found in desert and tropical environments, Aloe Leshies function as healers in small settlements, soothing minor injuries with traditional remedies. If provoked, the Aloe Leshy will leave enemies slipping, sliding, and open to attack from its spiky leaves. Enhanced water-retention affords a strong protection against the heat, both natural and magical in origin.

February 4, 2023
Boo's Astral Menagerie
lead designer: Christopher Perkins
interior artists Zoltan Boros et al.
cover artists: Justin Gerard
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: 2022
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN-10: 0-7869-6816-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-7869-6816-9
description: This book was part of the Spelljammer: Adventures in Space set that also included Astral Adventurer's Guide rulebook, Light of Xaryxis adventure, a dungeon master's screen and a slipcase. This bestiary contains more than sixty space-dwelling creatures. This book is compatible with the 5^th edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Role Playing Game.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the reigar.

Reigar are androgynous folk who evolved into a humanoid shape from a species of cephalopods similar to octopi. They have bioluminescent freckles and the ability to change the coloration of their skin. A glory (or halo) surrounds each of them. This magical display is a cloud of twinkling, glittering motes that changes color randomly and repels attacks.

Reigar don't trust one another, which has been the case ever since they destroyed their home world in a war that ended with a cataclysmic event called the Master Stroke. The planet's destruction was the culmination of a plot to create the most beautiful display of carnage the multiverse had ever seen. Reigar exist solely to make art and wage war. They consider warfare to be the highest form of artistic endeavor, and every act of violence they commit is done with the intent of creating something beautiful.

Reigar wander Wildspace and the Astral Sea in search of artistic inspiration, traveling in symbiotic organic ships that they create (see "Esthetic" earlier in this book). Each reigar possesses a magic item called a talarith, which it created and to which it alone can attune. If this object is lost or destroyed, it takes 1d10+20 days for the reigar to craft another one.

March 4, 2023
The Fairy Universe
authors: Laurent and Olivier Souillé
interior artist: Olivier Ledroit
cover artist: Olivier Ledroit
publisher: Ablaze
publication date: 2022
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 112
ISBN-10: 1-950912-51-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-950912-51-3
description: This artbook contains descriptions of more than xxx fairies, elves and fey creatures. It is not associated with any particular role playing game.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the fairy, Absinthe.

This fairy, with shining eyes and a disturbing gaze, was born from a most dangerous liquor: absinthe. Many men have tried to seduce her, including the brilliant Toulouse-Lautrec who was overwhelmed by her appearance. He desired her greedilyr but the whimsical fairy always refused him.

lntoxicated by her extreme beauty and her consummate art of seduction, many young suitors lost their minds. The uneducated think that absinthe is extracted from a particularly rare aromatic plant. What a mistake! The essence of this nectar is a tear from the strange lady. Be careful not to abuse it, however, as this alcohol has driven entire generations mad, except for a few lucky ones who have gone blind.

April 1, 2023
Starfinder Interstellar Species
authors: Rigby Bendele et al.
interior artists: Sergio Cosmai et al.
cover artist: Ignacio Bazán Lazcano
publisher: Paizo
publication date: 2022
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 192
ISBN-10: 1-64078-473-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-64078-473-4
description: Chapter 2 of this volume contains 25 in-depth entries describing playable races. Chapter 3 presents forty pages of non-player characters. This work is compatible with the Starfinder Role Playing Game.

Our featured entry from this volume is the astrazoan.

With unclear origins and no home world to call their own, astrazoans have dispersed throughout the Pact Worlds and beyond to join the galaxy's cosmopolitan tapestry. However, astrazoans only rarely show their true forms to non-astrazoans. Instead, most live their lives as humans, lashuntas, vesk, and other creatures of the Pact Worlds, preferring a semblance of anonymity and not wanting to shock their neighbors' humanoid sensibilities with astrazoans' peculiar appearances. After centuries of Drift travel and trade, most humanoids are accustomed to extremely varied life-forms, yet the astrazoan tradition of polite secrecy persists.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
When an astrazoan lies flat on their belly, they resemble a radially symmetrical starfish with seven limbs, weighing up to 180 pounds and having a diameter of 9 feet from the tip of one limb to the tip of an opposing limb. In practice, an astrazoan usually walks upright on five limbs, standing about 6 feet tall, with the remaining two limbs reserved to hold and manipulate objects.

Natural skin color varies, typically being some variant of dun, orange, or umber. To the touch, an astrazoan's skin is rough like sandpaper due to its thousands of dermal papillae that the astrazoan can control to replicate a wide range of surface textures and colors. Each arm has a large eye embedded about halfway down its length along the astrazoan's backside. Individually, an eye provides limited visual data, and an astrazoan must orient at least four eyes in the same direction to form a clear image.

The only other distinct feature on an astrazoan's natural body is its mouth, located at the center of their underside. The mouth has a small, retractable beak able to tear apart tougher foods; however, much digestion occurs externally, with an astrazoan expelling their stomach to envelop their food and secrete powerful enzymes into the partly chewed meal. Afterward, they retract the stomach along with the softened food. Like their stomach, an astrazoan's other organs are also quite mobile, ab1e to be shunted around the body as needed.

In fact, nearly all of an astrazoan's body can shift, contort, and invert as needed. The skeleton is cartilaginous and able to disarticulate temporarily, providing some structure and considerable fl exibility. Their jellylike flesh is comprised of long muscle fibers that can dislocate, flow, and realign into new configurations as needed, allowing them to squeeze through narrow openings and close wounds with ease. Along with their dermal papillae and countless chromatophores, an astrazoan can transform into a variety of functional shapes with extraordinary precision. Once locked into a new form, involuntary muscles help maintain the shape, even if an astrazoan become unconscious...

May 6, 2023
The Encyclopedia of Demons & Devils
authors: Timothy Brown et al.
interior artists: Jack Nichols et al.
cover artist: William W. Connors
publisher: Fast Forward Entertainment
publication date: 2001
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 224
ISBN-10: 0-9713234-3-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-9713234-3-8
catalog number: FAF 2004
description: This book contains entries for 172 tanar'ri (demons) and baatezu (devils). This book is compatible with the d20 Role Playing Game.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the succubus.

A Succubus is any one of a group of evil demi-goddesses who are, together, referred to as "the Succubi." Medieval folklore says that each one of these frightening sisters possesses similar powers, traits, personality, and appearance. They dwell in their own dread domain, halfway between nightmares and reality. Their true names are not known to mortals, and thus they are all called "Succubus" by those who fear them.

In her demonic form, a Succubus appears to be an extraordinarily beautiful, naked woman with batwings, fangs, and blazing eyes. She is seldom seen in this form, though. Usually, she uses her polymorph self power to appear as a perfectly formed woman of the same race as her victim.

A Succubus lives to cause dissent among mortals by seducing them, turning them against their friends, family, and gods, and thus destroying their lives even as she drains away their life energy. She is an intelligent monster, and very crafty. Many centuries of practice have made her expert at using her numerous abilities to their utmost.

Typically, a mortal first encounters a Succubus when entering her lair (usually underground) or when the demon uses her telepathic abilities to enter the victim's dreams. The succubus ranges far at night-sometimes physically, other times with her mental powers-searching for victims.

Once a succubus encounters a suitable victim, she will use her limited telepathy to discover the most desirable form to take to seduce him. She then uses polymorph self to assume a form that is most pleasing to her victim. Next, she uses .her telepathic projection power to insert herself into the victim's dreams. In these dreams, she will always make herself interesting to the victim - perhaps she is a princess waiting to be rescued, perhaps a lusty barmaid, perhaps a deposed queen...

June 3, 2023
The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons: A Field Guide to Japanese Yōkai
author: Matthew Meyer
interior artist Matthew Meyer
cover artists: N.A.
publisher: Matthew Meyer
publication date: 2012
cover: softcover
number of pages: 224
ISBN-10: 0-9852184-2-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-9852184-2-3
description: This book contains over 110 creatures from Japanese folklore.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the Mikoshi nyūdō.

TRANSLATION: anticipating priest
ALTERNATE NAMES: mikoshi, miage nyūdō, takabōzu
HABITAT: bridges, roads, streets; especially at night
DIET: omnivorous; prefers travelers

APPEARANCE: Mikoshi nyūdō are fearsome yōkai who appear late at night to lone travelers on empty streets, intersections, or bridges. They appear to be harmless traveling priests or monks, no taller than an ordinary person; but in an instant they grow abnormally tall, with long claws and hair like a wild beast.

BEHAVIOR: As soon as a person raises his eyes to look upon a mikoshi nyūdō, the giant grows to an immense height—as tall the observer is able to raise his eyes, and just as fast. This causes the person to look up so high and fast that they lose their balance and tumble backwards. That's when the mikoshi nyūdō lunges forward and bites their throat out with its teeth.

INTERACTIONS: Those unfortunate enough to meet this cruel yōkai usually do not live to tell the tale. Much depends on the person's reaction. If they try to ignore and walk past the mikoshi nyūdō, the angry giant will crush them or pierce them with bamboo spears and branches. The same fate is met by those who turn and try to run away. People who stare at the mikoshi nyūdō frozen in fear will drop dead on the spot, overcome by its presence.

The only possible escape is to anticipate the mikoshi nyūdō (thus its name). Meet it face-to-face, eye-to-eye, and show no fear. Then, look from its head down to its feet, rather than starting at the feet and looking up. If done properly, the giant's power to grow will be sapped. Telling the giant, "You lost! I anticipated your trick!" causes it to vanish in anger, leaving the traveler to pass safely along.

OTHER FORMS: Mikoshi nyūdō is a popular form of some shape-shifting animals. In particular, itachi and tanuki transform into these giants in order to hunt humans. Kitsune and mujina are known to occasionally take this form as well, ~hough less often. When a mikoshi nyūdō is result of a transformation, it carries a bucket, a lantern, or some other tool. This tool is where the shapeshifter's true body is stored. If you can snatch the object away from the giant before it attacks, the spell is broken and the transformed yōkai will be at its captor's mercy.